Title
Music – Ron Grainer, Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

TARDIS
Sounds – Brian Hodgson and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Executive
Producer (for BBC Worldwide) – Jacqueline Rayner

Story
Summary (SPOILERS!):

The Doctor takes Ace to the jungle planet of Kar-Charrat
so he can return a few late library books. The Library of Kar-Charrat though is
rather special; it houses the largest collection of printed material and
knowledge in the Galaxy, collected from billions of civilisations. However, the
Time Lords made the Library invisible to beings who aren’t time sensitive, in
order to protect the large repository of knowledge from hostile species.
However, the Daleks have been lurking and waiting in the jungle for centuries,
waiting for the arrival of a Time Lord, so they can start in motion a plan that
will enable them to invade and take over the Kar-Charrat library.

Ace is captured and duplicated, allowing for the Daleks
to infiltrate the Library, and deactivate its defences from the inside. After
the Daleks invade, they use the Doctor to help channel the Library’s stored
knowledge into test Daleks that will help advise them in their future planetary
conquests. The Library transfers this data via a recently developed “Wetworks”
facility that stores the information in individual water molecules. However,
the Doctor soon discovers that the Chief Librarian Elgin and his technical
staff have developed this facility by imprisoning Kar-Charrat’s native water-based
life form, and wipe their minds clean to hold the Library’s information as part
of the “Wetworks” technology. These creatures are microscopic and occupy the
molecules of every drop of water on the planet.

While the Doctor and Ace try to save the Kar-Charratans
from their torment, the Dalek test subject, which holds all the knowledge of library,
turns on its Dalek fellows, when their actions and orders go against the wisdom
of ages that its acquired knowledge has given it. In the ensuing Dalek fire
fight, the Doctor and Ace lay explosives in the Library to destroy the
“Wetworks” facility and free the Kar-Charratans, before escaping in the TARDIS
with the few surviving humans as the inevitable explosion does its work, and
destroys the remaining Daleks.

Story
Placement

Between Battlefield
(TV Serial) and Ghost Light (TV
Serial).

Although BIG Finish’s intended placement was after Survival (TV Serial), the more generic 7th
Doctor and Ace, as well as the notable absence of Ace’s character and emotional
development from Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric suggests a position
prior to these stories, but after The
Greatest Show in the Galaxy. I prefer a position after Battlefield because Ace still carries a slightly higher level of
teenage angst than in this audio adventure.

The story placement for the Daleks is much more
complicated. My personal preference is after the 3rd Doctor Dalek TV
serials of the early 1970s, but before The
Evil of the Daleks, as I like to think it’s the same Emperor Dalek in that
adventure. The presence of the Special Weapons Dalek is the only complication,
but you could suppose that if it was the Daleks rather than Davros that
invented them than it is still possible for Remembrance
of the Daleks to be a long way in their personal future. More detailed
explanations would require an analysis of the whole fictional Dalek timeline,
which doesn’t feel appropriate to do here.

Favourite
Lines

The
Doctor – “You could acquire the wisdom of a million years, from a billion
worlds, in less time than it would take to read a bus ticket”.

Bev Tarrant
– “I hate to be a pain, but we did kill the right one didn’t we?” (Referring to
Ace)

Review:

Big Finish’s first foray into portraying the Daleks on
audio is a very traditional one. As they themselves noted at the time, this was
a deliberate move to offer a type of Dalek adventure that hadn’t been seen
since the early 1970s. This approach may colour how a lot of Doctor Who fans see The Genocide Machine, but I have just as much love for the early
Dalek adventures as I do for the later and more creative storylines written
around Davros. Most of the Davros TV episodes were superior to the Dalek TV
adventures of the past, but this was mostly due to how more dramatically
complex and multi-layered those scripts were as well as how fascinating a
character Davros is in his own right. I suppose you could say that Big Finish
were trying to play it safe with The
Genocide Machine, testing the waters as well as their own abilities by
first staging a simple Dalek tale before going on to more ambitious storylines
with them in later outings. I for one though, greatly enjoyed this return to
the glory days of Dalek adventures where the metal monsters are both clever and
devious in their own right, away from the shadow of their infamous creator. And
there’s a lot to like.

There’s something quite quaint and amusingly British
about the idea of the Daleks invading a Library. They’re such low-key,
unimposing, cosy and above all human places that don’t feel anywhere near as
officious or important a target that you always see getting attacked by
invading aliens in stereotypical Science fiction, but that’s exactly why I love
it. The idea is both unusual and original, and it works. We often hear the
phrase ‘knowledge is power’, and Mike Tucker turns it into a possible weapon
for the Daleks to be interested in acquiring. Of course, we aren’t talking
about books so much as a facility or technology, in this case referred to as
“Wetworks” that in the story can hold all the knowledge in the known universe
and transfer it into the minds of its users. This technology claims to store
its data in the molecules of drops of water. How this is achieved is glossed
over, but it’s certainly a fascinating idea for real science to try out in the
future. As it turns out, the scale of ability of the “Wetworks” facility is a
falsehood, as Chief Librarian Elgin and his technical staff have imprisoned the
planet’s native microscopic water-based life forms, and used their minds to
hold the digital information of the Library to help the facility fulfil its function.

I also like the use of libraries in The Genocide Machine, particularly the inclusion of a scene
featuring the TARDIS Library in a performed Doctor
Who story at last. It’s often been mentioned throughout the decades, but
sadly the television episodes have seemed to avoid featuring it in the past,
and continue to do so now, with the exception of a few out-of-focus images in
shots from the 1996 TV Movie; so I’m glad that Big Finish are trying to rectify
that on audio, including a notable appearance in Storm Warning.

The Daleks are also quite effectively portrayed in The Genocide Machine. Their long plan to
stake out the Kar-Charrat library for a Time Lord is both coldly logical as it
is ruthlessly cunning, and really conveys how clever and unsettlingly dedicated
and unstoppable they are, always plotting their next move, and waiting
ominously like a Spider, for the best moment to strike. It also helps that
their plan is a lot more sound than on some previous occasions, although their
strict discipline and hierarchy as well as their lack of compassion and consideration
are quite ironically and appropriately the main course of their downfall in
this story, rather than the Doctor himself so much, which is a nice twist. Of
course, as a fan of most of the 1980s Dalek TV episodes, I’ve always loved a
bit of Dalek vs. Dalek battle action, and this time we get it as a result of a
free-thinking Dalek test subject which contains the knowledge (and supposedly
wisdom) of the Universe in its data banks, and decides to rail against the
Supreme Dalek. It’s also a useful bit of well-timed action that hugely livens
up the end of the story, which seemed to drag a fair bit in its earlier
episodes.

And sadly it is that point, which lets the production
down a bit. The premise and plot of the story, while efficient, effective and well-executed,
is still quite simplistic, with little in the way of additional layers of
meaning or story. There is the subplot about the torture and imprisonment of
the water-based Kar-Charratans in the “Wetworks” device, but you learn
everything you need to know about them over a ten minute section of part three
of The Genocide Machine, and although
they have a big presence in the overall story, their initial mystery is
stretched out far too long, and they’re mainly just used as a plot device to
help fight the Daleks by drowning them in their casings. However, the truth
about the Kar-Charratans and the “Wetworks” is a worthy repeat of one of Doctor Who’s central moral messages
about the need to respect all life as well as the importance of the sanctity of
life. It also adds a layer of good character development for the character of
Chief Librarian Elgin who proves to be something of a coward as well as
misguided, misusing his powers and authority to create such a monstrous device,
even if the original intentions were good, supporting the moral message that
the ends do not justify the means. I can also tell that Mike Tucker tried to
develop the Bev Tarrant character by making Rappell someone she deeply cared
about, hoping that the emotional connection will help create an additional
layer of drama that will fill up any early gaps in duration left by the central
plot of the lead storyline about the Daleks, however any drama ends up falling
flat, because Rappell was a pretty dull and basic character to start off with.
Another problem which hampers the story is a mass of scenes of padding,
particularly during parts two and three of the audio that don’t just slow the
pace of the story right down, but also repeat basic plot points and even
specific lines of dialogue or exposition multiple times for little reason that
I can fathom. Fortunately, these things don’t hugely spoil what is otherwise a
really fun and enjoyable outing for the Daleks, but they make it a bit less
interesting and a bit more average than I would’ve liked, and as a result is a
bit harder to care about what the characters go through.

Part four though, shows a marked improvement, with an
increase in pace, an exciting action sequence, moments full of dramatic tension,
and a satisfying finale that left a big smile on this listener’s face. It’s
like the story suddenly wakes up and has been shifted back into the right gear
at last. It certainly makes up a lot for the dithering of the preceding two episodes,
and last we can actually begin to care about the characters properly for the
first time. Although, having that said that, I don’t think that’s entirely true
as part one is also good. Part one actually benefits from the large servings of
invisible menace and mystery that we first get from the story, before they’re dragged
out too much by parts two and three. Furthermore, most of the characters are
really well sketched out before the mixed results of character development in
subsequent episodes.

The quality of characterisation overall though, is
decidedly patchy. Considering how well Mike Tucker wrote for the 7th Doctor and Ace in his earlier BBC novels, particularly Illegal Alien, it’s a bit disappointing to hear how generic they
are in characterisation, especially in the early parts of The Genocide Machine. The Doctor is absorbed in the mysteries of
Kar-Charrat and the menace to the Library, while Ace is full of teenage angst
and moans a lot to start off with, like in some of her early TV episodes,
although at least she recognises her foolishness later. Fortunately a lot of
these generic character moments are saved by the performances of Sylvester
McCoy and Sophie Aldred, who help to insert more of their characters’
individual quirks to help them appear more fleshed out than they are. It also
doesn’t help that a lot of Mike Tucker’s dialogue, regardless of character is
also very generic, at times giving the impression of scriptwriting-by-numbers,
verbally pointing out nearly every slight plot movement as it happens. Maybe
I’m being too harsh though, particularly if this Mike Tucker’s first time at
scriptwriting, which I must say is very impressive if that is indeed the case,
considering how well the story generally comes together. The characters of
Chief Librarian Elgin and Bev Tarrant are really well done though. Elgin is the
epitome of the eccentric pompous librarian who has a slight contempt for his inferiors
and in a great (but anticipated) twist that shows up his aforementioned
cowardly and greatly misguided nature, having unconsciously committed an
atrocious crime against the Kar-Charratan species. Bev Tarrant, on the other
hand, is a very likeable character who has been caught up in this Dalek
catastrophe, and has to endure the deaths of her friends, the elements and
serious injuries in her personal fight to survive the calamitous events taking
place around her. Despite being a thief, Bev is easy to sympathise with, as
although slightly misguided too, you can tell her heart is in the right place
and is clearly enlightened by the whole experience. Furthermore, Bev also has
some of the best lines, and a warm sarcasm, which is surprisingly easy to like,
given how hard it is to come up with good sarcastic jokes that feel right for
the moment (listen to The Land of the
Dead to hear how not to do it). I also loved the running gag about
Cataloguer Prink not being able to get a word in edgeways, despite Elgin’s
continuous moans about how chatty he is. Despite having only two lines in the
whole story, Prink’s death in part four is a great dramatic moment, and one of
the best in the whole audio as we genuinely feel for this downtrodden man, who
has clearly dedicated his life to the needs of others for several years.

The
Genocide Machine’s cast is also a highlight of the story.
Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, hit the ground running and both put in
strong performances, at times even improving the quality of the story by adding
more life to their characters where needed, when it isn’t always apparent in
the script, which does give them some bad lines. The chemistry between these
two great actors is as flawless, brilliant and palpable as it was over ten
years ago in their television episodes (The
Genocide Machine was recorded in late 1999). Sylvester McCoy in particular
has some great scenes where he effectively rages against Elgin for his crimes
against the Kar-Charratans. Although I’ve noticed that some listeners dislike
McCoy’s delivery of these scenes, feeling off-kilter with his established TV
persona, or just a bad way of acting angrily, but for me McCoy’s delivery of
these lines is totally believable, just like his angry speech to Morgaine in Battlefield (TV Serial), albeit in a
different way, and I buy into it. He sells the Doctor’s incandescent rage with
Elgin with intense distaste, but never goes over the top in my view. Moving on
though, Sophie Aldred is rather oddly unconvincing as a robot, while voicing
Ace’s android Dalek duplicate. I never thought it was possible to create a flat
sounding monotone voice before hearing The
Genocide Machine, but I guess it’s better to be bad at being a robot than a
human character, so it’s not hard to forgive. Sophie Aldred is an amazing
actress the majority of the time, so you can’t blame someone for having a
weakness somewhere. Meanwhile, Louise Faulkner is brilliant as Bev Tarrant and
imbues her with a convincing vulnerability and bravery that really helps round
out the character. The best performance on this occasion though, goes to Bruce
Montague, who really brings out the different dimensions in Elgin so vividly,
from his vanity and bitter resentment, as well as his excitable eccentricities,
as well as his nervous apprehension and trembling cowardice at anything
remotely threatening. I really can’t imagine the character being played any
better or any differently, which is a testament to Montague’s memorable
performance and skill in the role.

As Nicholas Briggs’ first official production as the
voice of the Daleks, it’s very impressive to hear just how outstanding his
performance of the metal monsters already is. I suppose some people would say
that’s called professionalism, but nevertheless his performance is spot on from
the start. Alistair Lock is very good also, and even Gary Russell passes muster
(I’m pretty sure Gary is the second Dalek test subject, the one that eventually
takes on the Special Weapons Dalek), but Nick Briggs is certainly the strongest
Dalek performer in the audio, and as we would discover over the course of subsequent
Dalek audios, is clearly the best Dalek voice artist since the late Roy
Skelton, who impressively voiced them on TV for over three decades (from The Evil of the Daleks to Remembrance of the Daleks, and other
1990s cameo appearances). That’s no doubt why the BBC employed his vocal skills
when the Daleks returned in the new Doctor
Who TV incarnation that started in 2005.

There is a noticeable error in some settings of the voice
modulation during part one and some of part two though. According to Doctor Who – The New Audio Adventures: The
Inside Story (Benjamin Cook, 2003), Gary Russell provided some of the
voices in the earlier episodes and they turned out to be not as good as the Big
Finish production team wanted, and were promptly re-recorded by Nicholas Briggs
and Alistair Lock. However, they couldn’t recall the exact ring modulator
settings at that time, and as a result there is a distinct lack of distortion
in the Dalek voices during those early episodes. It doesn’t spoil the
listener’s enjoyment of those scenes, because the voices are still
well-performed, but I found myself unconsciously yearning for the more
developed and exciting voices to turn up. It’s merely a harmless and
understandable mistake given that this was Big Finish’s first attempt at
recreating the Daleks, and the voices are still superior to those used in Gary
Russell and Nicholas Briggs’ Audio Visuals back in their amateur years, and
were absolutely perfect from the end of part two onwards.

As well as the Dalek voices, the rest of the audio
production is also impressive. I really like Nicholas Briggs’ score, which
while experimental, brilliantly sets the tone of the story, underlining the
suspense and mystery in the script, and comes into its own during part four.
The ring modulated segments also suit the Daleks perfectly, a trick that Nick
Briggs would reuse on both his future Doctor
Who Dalek scores, and his epic audio Dalek spin-off project, Dalek Empire. Meanwhile Nicholas Briggs’
other work in The Genocide Machine,
his sound design, is extensive, meticulous and also superb. The mix of tropical
atmosphere, subtle background rain and plant rustling brings Kar-Charrat to
life and is totally convincing as a Jungle planet, making it easy for the
listener to immerse themselves into the drama taking place. He also clearly has
fun getting lots of little effects out of the ring modulator to use for various
scientifically advanced machines and Dalek technologies. With the stock Dalek sound
effects too, the audio has a great soundscape all told.

The Daleks’ first official appearance on audio is an
engaging and fun production all round. The
Genocide Machine may be a more simplistic and traditional Dalek story, but
it has a great premise, fantastic post-production and a well-paced plot that
becomes quite thrilling in the last 15 minutes. It may have substantial
padding, mixed characterisation and occasionally generic dialogue, but these
don’t derail the success of the overall production, and its good points more
than make up for its shortcomings. The
Genocide Machine is the first in many enjoyable Dalek audios to come, and
although it may not be one of the best, it’s a good starting point.

Score: 8/10

P.S. Illustration by Lee Sullivan

Also thank you to James Parker for the use of his wonderful CGI images which are copyright to him. I would recommend other Doctor Who fans to check out his other CGI work at:

Title
Music – Ron Grainer, Peter Howell and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (Remastered
by David Darlington)

TARDIS
Sounds – Brian Hodgson and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Executive Producer (for BBC
Worldwide) – Jacqueline Rayner

Story
Summary (BIG SPOILERS!):

Helping out a journalist called Willis, the Doctor is investigating
a rumour of mass redundancy at intergalactic company TAI (Trans-Allied
Incorporated), but discovers that Arnold and Lorraine Baynes, the company’s
owners, have smuggled in the body of Davros in the hope of resuscitating him.
The Baynes are trying to hire Davros to help TAI create new technological and
cultural advances that will help the company become even more successful. When
the Doctor reveals himself, Arnold Baynes encourages the Time Lord and the
Dalek creator to work together. Davros seems to claim to have changed and wants
to start again, now a more rehabilitated character.

The Doctor isn’t fooled by Davros, but his condemnations
and involvement with the journalist Willis causes the Baynes to mistrust him.
Davros uses this chance to secretly find a way to take over the company and
destroy the human economy via a scientific formula that can predict the stock
market. He attempts to kill Arnold Baynes and the Doctor with a remote nuclear
bomb, but both manage to survive. The TAI workers though, are not so lucky,
dying in the nuclear fallout of the bomb. When the Doctor returns and foils
Davros’ attempts to broadcast the formula, Davros tries to escape in the
Baynes’ spaceship, using Kimberly Todd, a surviving worker as a hostage. Kim
sacrifices herself in order to allow the Doctor to crash the spaceship, stopping
Davros from releasing the formula that will destroy the human stock market. In
the aftermath, the Doctor reflects upon his hollow victory and laments that
Davros has probably still survived.

Story
Placement

Between The Two
Doctors (TV Serial) and Blue Box
(BBC Book).

For Davros this story is immediately before Revelation of the Daleks (TV Serial), although its not clear how it links up to his preceeding adventure, Resurrection of the Daleks (TV Serial).

Favourite
Lines

Davros
– “This is not the end. This is only...the beginning!”

The
Doctor – “Oh, dear. Back to square one, two and a half hours wasted – you
could’ve stayed in bed, Davros.”

The
Doctor – “Davros, if you’re not careful your face will stick like that. Now,
could you pass those neuronic pliers?”

The
Doctor – “After all, you can’t say ‘team’ without saying ‘tea’”.

Davros
– “I was nothing, the mere dreams of a man who should have died millennia before”.

Davros
– “And then I felt my heart beat. That had just been the first second of my
imprisonment”.

Davros
– “You have laws that make your workers less
productive?”

Davros
– “War makes comrades of us all. And then takes all those comrades away”.

The
Doctor – “He’ll destroy you, Mr. Baynes. He’ll take out your eyes, and then
he’ll come back for the sockets. And he’ll laugh as he does it”.

The
Doctor – “Look, I’ve made his tea for him and everything”.

The
Doctor – “It’s quite the most inefficient use of a nuclear weapon I’ve ever
seen”.

Davros
– “There’s no such thing as too much destruction!”

Review:

As of 2012, Big Finish have produced numerous Doctor Who classics and audio
masterpieces that many fans, including myself, have taken to heart and love
just as much as our favourite television episodes. Back in 2003, when they were
fewer in number (not per year, in total), and Big Finish were only 4 years old
(it feels so weird saying that as 4 years was a big deal in those days), it
produced Davros, one of its most assured
and best ever releases. Like Omega
and Master, Davros is essentially a detailed character study of the titular
character, who is perhaps Doctor Who’s
greatest ever villain. Unlike the former though, Davros feels even more special, due to its extended story length,
and wrapped in a brilliantly-written adventure that could be described as the
ultimate in face-offs between the Doctor and Davros, strenuously testing their
characters while revealing fascinating new layers about them at the same time.

The writer of this glorious production, Lance Parkin, is
one of my favourite Doctor Who
writers and never ceases to impress with his ambitious and original narratives,
great characters, and his brilliant talent at keeping his Doctor Who material up-to-date with the times, without feeling the
need to rewrite the concept or formula of the show to match his own whims,
always understanding the underlying spirit of Doctor Who, and often works in old continuity and mythology
seamlessly to great effect. His work on Davros
is no exception.

The story here involves a comatose Davros being taken
from a derelict space freighter by Arnold Baynes, the head of a powerful galaxy-wide
corporation who wants to use Davros’ talents to help bring him new and bigger
successes, while his historian wife is obsessed with Davros and is fascinated
by his past. Davros, after centuries of imprisonment, reflection and limbo,
seems to want a change and be a more rehabilitated force for good. With the
Doctor around though, and Mrs. Baynes examining and analysing his past, he
begins to realise he cannot change what has always been his true nature, and
seeks to take control of TAI away from the Baynes’ at the earliest opportunity.

This may seem to be a rather simple tale about being
careful what you wish for, but in reality this is a clever plot to help frame
the real story, the story of Davros, the story of who he is, and why, as well
as why he’ll never change. If you thought Genesis
of the Daleks told you everything that was worth knowing about Davros,
think again.

For the first time, we understand why Davros is so
utterly ruthless, merciless and murderous, as he is eternally obsessed with
being superior to others, whether it be in terms of intellect, or control; and
he eliminates all rivals and threats to that goal. On the surface, that point
might seem rather obvious, but this is the first time that I know of that
someone has actually tried to explain this fully, and quite so perfectly. This
is best demonstrated by Davros’ past friendship with fellow Kaled scientist
Shan, which is clearly more than platonic for him, even he doesn’t know it
himself. In a great little twist, we discover that it was in fact Shan who came
up with the Dalek concept, and that Davros merely fronted and later implemented
it; even if he added his own touches later on (like the loss of all compassion
and positive emotions for instance). Even Shan though, becomes a victim of
Davros’ quest for supremacy, as her growing success and high intelligence, as
well as her love for another Kaled man, makes Davros unconsciously and insanely
jealous. Davros frames Shan for treason as he plants information on her lover
so that he can be accused and sentenced as being a Thal sympathiser (the Thals
and Kaleds were stuck in eternal war at this time, see Genesis of the Daleks). He even rather sadistically watches her die
without any noticeably sympathy.

As you can probably tell, these scenes were flashbacks of
Davros remembering of his past life back on Skaro, many of which took place
even before the near fatal injury that forced him into the striking appearance
we know. Lance Parkin grabs the opportunity to add more dimensions and depth to
Davros’ character with relish, and very nearly fools the audience into thinking
that perhaps Davros is a victim after all, and can possibly become a better
person given the chance. Parkin cleverly uses some of the flashbacks to Davros’
past on Skaro to reinforce this possibility as we see in his younger days that
he was a much softer and more innocent person, whose future cruel and
malevolent personality are sometimes mere echoes. However, Parkin’s brilliant
twist is that we discover almost the complete opposite. Davros was always in
control of his own destiny, and never ever a victim. Even before the incident
that crippled him, the mature Davros, all innocence long extinguished, hadn’t
just become corrupted by success and power, they’ve brought out his cold and
ruthless philosophy to the fore that deep down he had always possessed.
Furthermore the pressures and bleak depressions put on him by the eternal
Kaled-Thal war focused his mind onto the cold realities of pure scientific
logic and have unconsciously made him to believe in taking the concept of
survival of the fittest to extreme conclusions, becoming insanely obsessed with
his own future success and position, and jealous of any remote rivalry. And all
this before even the Daleks were created. The usual tradition of character
stories that focuses upon villains almost always try to tell us of how deep
down inside they are a better person underneath, or used to be. However, Lance
Parkin’s clever bluff, and then his ambitious take on trying to do the complete
opposite makes Davros’ narrative all
the more fascinating, not to mention exciting. Davros is the ultimate
irredeemable villain. He was always going to destroy the Baynes and takeover
TAI, but the suspense and the flashbacks written to partly mislead us makes
this a much greater story. It also makes Davros’ return to evil, all the more
impressive as it feels like we finally have a full measure of the character at
last. Davros’ plan to destroy Earth society by self-destructing the stock
market with a mathematical formula is also very fascinating, and a very
original idea on Lance Parkin’s part. I love it because it reminds us that
Davros’ biggest weapon is his intelligence, and just because it’s simpler than
an alien invasion force, doesn’t mean it’s any less effective. Parkin doesn’t
stop there though.

When Davros dispenses with his self-doubt and reveals his
real plan, the plot suddenly explodes
into life, quite literally. The nuclear bomb that Davros tricks Willis into
taking may be a simple plot device, but it certainly gets the story racing,
adding another layer of enjoyment. I’m always a fan of action, so even on audio
it’s an easy way of getting me hooked. Lance Parkin’s skill though is in
placing the action in just the right place, where the story needs it. We’ve had
mystery and suspense, we’ve had the magnificent character development, now is
the time to round the story off with an exciting climatic finish. And Davros certainly doesn’t disappoint. The
thrill of the nuclear explosion leads to a fantastic final face-off between the
Doctor and Davros, with a great battle of words, a mini-chase of sorts (if you
can call jumping onto a lift a chase), and a crashing spaceship enveloping into
a ball of flame. As the Doctor notes, Davros has probably survived, but for now
Davros has once again been defeated.

Even though Davros gets a lot of the best material, the
other characters are well written and fleshed out too. The Doctor for instance,
while although not the main focus of the story, undoubtedly still has a very
key role within it. For once, he represents the regular audience, the white to
Davros’ black, desperately warning the Baynes’ about what they’re getting into,
fully expecting Davros to have a dastardly plan at work, which he does
eventually during part two. However, I also like how the Doctor is used in
Parkin’s bluff about Davros being a more reformed character. We get a chance to
see how it feels for the villain to be at the end of the Doctor’s sharp tongue.
Although his righteous indignation and cynicism are more than well-founded, the
script cleverly makes the Doctor seem judgemental and occasionally mean in his
early scenes with Davros, because for the first half of the story Davros seems
to be almost reasonable, as well as vulnerable and withdrawn, and certainly
never puts up a fight, not even verbally against the Doctor’s rebukes, which
makes the Time Lord appear to be striking out at a person who’s already down.
However, most of us know that Davros was often a wolf in sheep’s clothing, when
came to being involved with those characters who didn’t understand his true
nature, but the brilliance in Parkin’s characterisation means that for a moment
we are genuinely fooled into thinking that Davros is truly repentant.

Back to the Doctor though, I’m also glad that Lance Parkin
(or Gary Russell) decided upon using the Sixth Doctor for this particular
story. Almost every confrontation between the Doctor and Davros has been a big
event for Doctor Who, but Davros
always seemed to spar best with the Sixth Doctor, as seen at the climax of part
two in Revelation of the Daleks (1985
TV Serial). Most of the other encounters were great too, but there’s something
about the magnificent bravado, wit and fierce intelligence of the Sixth Doctor
that makes him more than a match for the cold, brutal ruthlessness and equally
fierce intelligence of Davros, even though they are each focused on very
different ends. The extended story length also helps to portray a more rounded
version of the Sixth Doctor than had been portrayed on television. Although by
this point, Big Finish had already worked new wonders with the character during
the original and fantastic audio adventures with Evelyn Smythe, Davros is supposedly set after The Two Doctors (1985 TV Serial) at a
period when the Sixth Doctor was still a fairly volatile character. However,
Lance Parkin brilliantly reconciles this with the audio Sixth Doctor, because
his outbursts and loud indignations are more than reasonable when the cause of
them is such a character as Davros (or any dangerous enemy or alien come to
that). Away from Davros, the Sixth Doctor is quieter, restrained and
considered, and we can easily see that under all the bravado he is still the
kind and caring hero we all know and love, including comparing to his previous
incarnations. I especially love the more domestic scenes where we see the
Doctor trying to come to terms with living the lifestyle of an everyday worker,
including being late for work, and his various scenes of being annoyed with the
automated personal organiser earpiece that is put upon him, which reminds us of
how annoying automated phone messages are; particularly one funny moment when
even once the Doctor has told it to shut up, while hanging off a precipice, the
earpiece persistently fights back by playing muzak to him while he struggles to
climb up to safety. However, I also like that Parkin seems to have taken the
time to make sure the Sixth Doctor’s character fits in with those of his 1985
TV adventures, where Big Finish suggests Davros
is set, chronologically speaking. The Sixth Doctor is still melodramatic,
slightly verbacious, always insists on telling everyone what he thinks, and
occasionally rather arrogant, just like in his early TV adventures, the
important difference being that in Davros
we can see a lot more of our hero beneath all the bluster and vanity, than was always clear from the
character’s first TV serials.

The Baynes’ are also well written. Arnold Baynes cleverly
symbolises a lesser and human version of Davros. He is obsessed with success
and being the best, he ruthlessly disposes of all his rivals (when he can), has
an inflated opinion of his own self-importance, and away from the high
intelligences of the Doctor and Davros, it’s clear that he too has a sharp
mind. This similarity is shown in a nice moment when after Davros has taken
over TAI, Arnold Baynes tells the Doctor he’ll want to keep his historian wife
alive to record his new rise to power for prosperity. The Doctor tries to
compliment Baynes by saying that he has finally understood how Davros thinks,
but Baynes retorts that that was why he married a historian in the first
place.Unlike Davros though, Arnold
Baynes isn’t a cold-hearted insane psychopath (well I suppose that’s kind of
obvious), but this is another way that Lance Parkin brilliantly emphasises just
how truly evil and monstrous Davros is by giving us a human villain, who is a
pretty strong antagonist anyway, before having him subsequently dwarfed by the
sadistic and megalomaniacal acts of Davros. Evil isn’t usually a good measure
of a villain, purely because it’s usually portrayed or written so
one-dimensionally, but the beauty of Davros
is that through Lance Parkin’s script and Terry Molloy’s performance it gives
the audience a believable four-dimensional vision of what a truly evil
character (or person even to some extent) could be really like. Arnold Baynes
is quite scary a character himself though, even if not in the obvious ways.His calm and assured manner, as well as his
courteous, reasonable and slightly unassuming public persona gives Arnold
Baynes the illusion of being a decent and good man, when in reality he is a
smooth and sly operator who keeps his dark side hidden. What sends chills down
the spine though, is just how similar
he is to a lot of highly successful millionaire businessmen, bankers and
politicians who also seemly hold the World in their hands.

Lorraine Baynes is also a villain, albeit a lesser and
much more misguided one. Like her husband, she doesn’t have a problem with
committing murder in order to meet a desired aim, but is not quite as ruthless,
and often leaves her husband to take care of most ‘necessary’ sins. I say
misguided, because her obsession with Davros and his past stops her from
realising the mad scientist’s true nature until it is far too late. Davros’
later sadistic and merciless human massacre in the TAI dome provokes a feeling
of revulsion in Lorraine Baynes’ that proves to both herself as well as the
listener that she’s not a killer by nature, but her cold detachment means that
it takes a large human tragedy in close quarters to move her. Even the murder
of her husband by Davros shocks and upsets her only initially, and by the end
of the story, she is already focusing on how to protect herself legally and
politically from the recent disaster.

Happily, for a less prominent character, Kimberly Todd
also comes into her own throughout the story. She clearly has a deep loyalty to
the Baynes’, her employers, who have been good to her over the years, but due
to her strong moral fibre and conscience, Kim often feels compelled to act, and
indeed triggers the Doctor’s involvement in the story through her actions. When
Davros takes over TAI though, even Kimberly feels powerless to act when faced
with such a monster as Davros, who forces her to serve him. However, the
extreme stress and terror Kim is put under, makes her stronger, until when Kim
finally realises that only she can stop Davros, and in a real punch-the-air
moment, takes on the monster that has recently victimised her. Kim forces the
escaping spaceship that Davros brought her on, into a crash dive, thus
preventing his quick escape and foiling his plan to destroy the human economy,
sacrificing herself to help save others. It’s a tragic end to her life, but
it’s also supremely courageous and heroic, even surpassing the Doctor on this
occasion, which is saying a lot. It somehow feels very appropriate that in this
big tale of monsters, villains and a Time Lord, it’s really one of the ‘little’
people – an unassuming, kind, hard-working and quiet young woman, who really
puts them all to rights, and saves the Galaxy. It’s also quite humbling and
moving. That’s also why I think Kimberly is one my favourite things about the
whole production, a truly fantastic character!

Willis is sadly, almost totally incidental in comparison,
and seems to merely serve as a talking plot device. He does have some
character, of course, but none of this really goes in his favour. Although he
does have good reason to be sceptical of Arnold Baynes’ charm and rhetoric, he
also has a dose of paranoia that is large enough to be considered unhealthy at
times. Willis is also very naive, idiotic, blunt, occasionally clumsy, and
seems to have little, if any sense of subtlety or diplomacy. So in other words,
he’s perhaps too believable an impression of a journalist. Willis also seems to
be something of a prat, so he’s not really that likeable. Even when Arnold
Baynes kills Willis, you pity him, but it’s difficult to actually feel or care about him. Or maybe that
was the point.

It has to be said though; the cast and their performances
are really superb. As you would guess, Terry Molloy steals the show, and pretty
much every scene he’s in with his astoundingly good portrayal of the Dalek
creator. Listening to his crisp, pitch-perfect delivery, you wouldn’t think it
had been 15 years since he last played Davros, such is the enthusiasm and power
of his performance. Both Michael Wisher and Julian Bleach gave us great
interpretations of the Davros character, but for me, Terry Molloy was always
the best of them and in my view, Davros
proves it. As viewers of Terry’s TV appearances as Davros will know, his more
well-known loud, ranting and mad moments are absolutely electric and very
powerful. However, in Davros, Terry
Molloy gives us a myriad of dimensions in his performance, even more than is
obvious from the script. While Davros is trying to work out both himself and
the situation during part one, he calmly listens and almost talks naturally.
However, Terry gives wonderful quiet hisses when the Doctor tries to aggravate
him. Terry Molloy also portrays something that we don’t normally get to see
from the character, sadness and fear. Sometimes, as in traditional Davros
fashion it is rather overt, but most of the time when he is being reflective
and introspective, Terry magnificently plays it quite subtly. This is
particularly evident during Davros’ hallucinations in part two, as well as
during the scenes when he is trying to recall Shan. Shan was a fellow clever
Kaled scientist who Davros admired and unconsciously felt affection for, even
if he still cannot recognise that in the present, after all the intervening
centuries of thought and reflection. Davros’ fantastic soliloquy at the
beginning of the story, also shows off Terry Molloy’s great range of performance,
starting off quiet and tense, gradually becoming more and more menacing,
building up slowly in intensity until he reaches his loud, impassioned peak,
practically ending his speech and starting off the story with a powerful battle
cry.

Colin Baker also shines throughout the production. As I
hope to explain in greater detail over reviews of future sixth Doctor audios,
Colin Baker is a supremely underrated actor who has often been unfairly written
off, because in his early Doctor Who
TV episodes, the Sixth Doctor was given some fairly unlikeable attributes, that
although were phased out later on, weren’t phased out enough for viewers to be
able to see the Sixth Doctor that Colin wanted to portray. Big Finish’s Doctor Who audios have thankfully given
Colin Baker a chance to do just that, and now more people can at last see how
talented an actor Colin really is. I was always a fan of Colin Baker’s Doctor,
and aside from during The Twin Dilemma,
his poorly-written opening TV serial from 1984, liked most of his attributes.
The Sixth Doctor was always bold, passionate, and heroic in my view, and I
often found his loud vanity rather amusing, even if others didn’t. Now a lot
more Doctor Who followers enjoy Colin
Baker’s performance, even if it’s just for the more softer and sensitive
aspects of the character, that I knew were there all along, waiting to be
discovered. As this is supposed to be an early Sixth Doctor, Colin has had to
retain some of the spiky nature of his TV character, but here the nature and
events of the story more than justify the Doctor’s attitude. However, Lance
Parkin gives the Sixth Doctor lots of quieter and softer moments that give
Colin a chance to offer other aspects to his character, which he leaps at, and
clearly enjoys, making himself as much a star of the production as Terry Molloy
does.

Bernard Horsfall is an inspired choice for the role of
Arnold Baynes. I’ve always loved everything he’s been in, such is the vigour
and great presence that he has in his performances. On the surface, Bernard may
be at odds with the slick and smooth stereotype of millionaire businessman that
we all have in our heads, but this is far from the reality, as proven by Rupert
Murdoch and Lord Michael Ashcroft, so Bernard Horsfall’s more gravelly vocal
tones suit the part wonderfully. Bernard also brings a great quiet and calm
menace to the part, brilliantly underplaying Arnold Baynes, and helping to make
him a very realistic and scarily believable villain. Wendy Padbury’s first Doctor Who audio appearance is also a
good one. She is totally believable as a historian, just as she was as a
scientist when she played Zoe during the 1960s. Wendy gives Lorraine Baynes an
interesting steely edge to her character, which then believably slips when Lorraine
witnesses the huge human massacre Davros creates just to kill the Doctor and
Arnold Baynes. Ruth Sillers also helps to bring out some of the best in
Kimberly Todd, emphasising her sweet innocent and kind nature, as well as her
quiet bravery.

Like the rest of Davros,
the production of the audio excels. Gary Russell directs the cast well and sets
the tone perfectly. Meanwhile, Jane Elphinstone’s music is simple, but very
effective, mostly capturing the mood of each scene, with some great subtle cues
as well as some tense and powerful sampled strings, which help to give the
story its epic feel. The very modern light electronic music also helps to give
the score a slight futuristic edge, which suits the story brilliantly. The
extensive sound design by Jim Mortimore is also superlative; from small
electronic bleeps and smooth automatic doors to a nuclear explosion and a
crashing spacecraft, he creates a fantastic sense of scale from the personal
perspective of a small bedroom to a large empty spaceship hanger. It’s this scale
and expert attention to detail that makes this ambitious production feel and
sound like a big budget feature film.

I’ve always been impressed by the quality of Big Finish’s
work, but I’ve always thought that Davros
was one of their best ever releases. Outstanding production, an excellent
cast, powerful performances, and an exceptionally written, detailed and
multi-layered script from Lance Parkin, results in not just an audio Doctor Who classic, but a superb audio
drama that can more than stand up on its own. The only criticism I can think of
is if the story time was a few minutes tighter in part one, but as you can tell
I am clearly nitpicking. For me, Davros
is both an amazing character study, and a fantastic aural delight from start to
finish. Furthermore, it continues to remain so, even after several repeat
listens.